The limitless world of art
Like any other type of art, painting is very versatile and has spawned a great number of styles and technique that can enlarge your ‘lexicon’ as an artist. It will probably take your whole life to learn all of them, but getting the hang of a few won’t hurt! Here are five amazing painting techniques that you should definitely try your hand at.
Great new techniques to learn
- - Glazing
Simply put, glazing is applying a layer of transparent paint over the area of the canvas that’s already dry. Although it sounds very simple, this technique is very useful for modulating color and emphasizing shadows. For instance, painting dry yellow over with a coat of light transparent blue will give it a greenish hue.
- - Dry brush
In this method, paints are applied in such a way that the initial layer, already dry, is covered only partially. It can be done by dipping the brush in a very small amount of paint and making quick strokes in a certain direction. Dry brush is used to paint light over dark and may come in handy while replicating grass and rock textures.
- - Sgraffito
It may surprise you, but sometimes you need to remove paint rather than apply it to complete your work. Sgraffito implies scratching into wet layers of paint to reveal the underpainting. This way, you can depict grass textures, hair and things of the sort. Any sharp, pointed object is suitable for this technique, including the other end of your brush, a special knife or simply anything else at hand.
- - Splattering and dripping
If you are into abstract art, you should definitely try to create a painting using these techniques! They involve spraying paint into a canvas to form random patterns or tilting a wet canvas so that the paints are simply dripping down its surface leaving spectacular traces. The trick is that you don’t even need a painting talent for this!
- - Printing
No, there is no printing machine involved. It’s simply covering a canvas with imprints of various objects dipped in paint. You can choose any colors and shapes to fulfill your creative agenda. Use any stuff you can find around or make the stencils yourself.